Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the Word of God contained within the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the promises and the Covenant which God had given and made with Abraham, the forefather of the Israelites and many other nations, and who is also our father in faith, as the progenitor of all those who believe in one of the major Abrahamic traditions and beliefs, including that of Christianity. And therefore we are reminded that we ourselves are also part of the same Covenant between God and us, and we are all part of this commitment which all of us are expected to fulfil in our daily living and in all the things that we do so that we are truly indeed worthy of God’s grace and love, His promises and reassurances for us.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Genesis detailing to us what the Lord had established with Abraham, making a Covenant with him as mentioned earlier on, binding himself and his descendants to God, and therefore blessing Him with the promise of many descendants and the land which God would bestow upon the descendants of Abraham, but at the same time, also requiring them all to follow the Law and commandments that God would give to them. A Covenant is a two-way commitment between two parties, and in this case between God on one side and then Abraham and his descendants on the other. And that God willingly made this Covenant between Himself and us, His beloved people, is a clear sign of His ever enduring and great love for each and every one of us.

The Lord showed and proved His commitment to the Covenant which He had made with all of us, and this includes His guidance to Abraham and his descendants, providing for them and protecting them through difficult times and moments. He provided for them in their time and hour of need, shielding them from their enemies, bringing them out of their slavery in the land of Egypt and showing His might to the Egyptians and their Pharaoh. He was always with His people, guiding and providing for them even when they have often hardened their hearts and rebelled against Him. The Lord showed us all His persistent and powerful love, and we truly should be grateful for what He has shown us, all the kindness that He has bestowed upon us, and hence, we should return His love with the same kind or commitment and dedication as well.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the continuation of the interactions and disputes between the Lord Jesus and the Jewish people, which were referring to the zealous Pharisees and the members of the community that supported them, in their refusal to believe in the Lord, in His teachings and works. And today we heard the increasing hostility between the crowd and the Lord, when the crowd, proudly claiming their descent from Abraham just as we heard in our Gospel passage yesterday, took offense at the Lord when the Lord told them that if they believed in Him, they would not experience death, saying that He was uttering nonsense or even blasphemy by stating such things.

But the Lord was saying the truth when He told them all that, telling them that His truth and all that He delivered to them would indeed save them all from certain destruction and death. But those people, many of whom had witnessed the Lord’s miracles and works, and heard His Wisdom and truth failed to believe in Him despite of what they themselves had experienced, all due to their pride and ego which had made them to harden their hearts and minds against God. They were proud of their descent from Abraham, and as was common at the time, they considered others to be unworthy of God, inferior and sinners who would defile and corrupt them if they were to mingle with those people. Yet this is not what God had taught and wanted His people to do in their lives.

For to God, each and every one of us mankind are important and beloved, and we are all equally beloved by Him, and He does not discriminate us based on our descent, background or origins. He made all those who believe in Him and have been faithful to Him to be His beloved children, and as the children of Abraham by faith, by adoption and by our partaking of the same Covenant which God had promised to Abraham. Therefore, all of us are also worthy of everything that God had promised to Abraham and his descendants, as long as we believe in God and live our lives in the manner that is truly pleasing to Him. We should not be like those who claimed to be worthy because they were descended from Abraham, and yet, refused to believe in the Lord when He came to their midst, and those who were hypocrites in their faith and life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore heed the messages that we have heard today from the Sacred Scriptures and be reminded that we are all part of the Covenant which God had made with us, and henceforth, all of us are expected to observe faithfully the commandments and Law that God had taught, shown and revealed to us. We should not allow ourselves to be easily swayed by the temptations of the world, of ambitions and glory, prejudices and all other things which may lead us astray in our journey towards God. Instead, we should abandon our pride and ego, and grow more in humility, realising the depth of our sinfulness and wickedness, all the things which had kept us away from God and His love.

During this time and season of Lent, let us all hence renew our commitment to God and turn away from all of our rebellious attitudes, doing our very best to embrace God’s love and mercy, and doing our part to fulfil our obligations and commitments to God. We are all called to be good role models and examples for our fellow brothers and sisters around us, in living our lives faithfully out of compassion for our brethren and our genuine love for God. Let us all therefore as Christians be truly faithful to the Lord and show our faith through our everyday living and actions, now and always. Especially during this time of Lent let us all be the good and worthy bearers of the truth and light of God’s Good News and salvation. Amen.

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all continue to journey through this holy and penitential season of Lent, we are all reminded of the sins and wickedness which we have committed in this life, and all the things which bring about the Divine displeasure because sin is abhorrent before God, and sin cannot exist in God’s Presence or else we will be crushed and destroyed by those sins. If yesterday we were reminded of God’s generous mercy and love, His ever present desire to forgive us all our sins, then in today’s Scripture readings we are reminded that the same Lord, our God, is also a Holy and Just God, One Who is all good and perfect, and will not have corruption of sin and evil in His Presence.

God’s generous and rich mercy provides for us the sure avenue and path for us to return to Him and to be forgiven from our many sins. However, we must also realise that those sins require us to embrace God’s forgiveness and mercy wholeheartedly, committing ourselves to the path of repentance and reconciliation with God. Without repentance and contrition over our sins, there can be no true forgiveness, because while God’s mercy is truly rich and boundless, but if we are still strongly attached to sin and disobedience against God, eventually we will still be drawn again and again back into sin and its corruptions. That is why especially during this time and season of Lent, we are reminded to rid ourselves of all these sins and the attachments to sin.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Exodus, we heard of the moment when the Israelites committed a great sin against God because they intentionally abandoned and betrayed Him by establishing a golden calf idol over them and calling it their lord and master, their god and the one who saved them out of the land of Egypt. In this well-known occasion and story, the Israelites chose to rebel against God because they were impatient and they also assumed that Moses, the leader whom God had sent to them and appointed to lead them to the Promised Land had perished on the mountain, and therefore, they were free to choose their own path and some among them likely instigated the people to adopt the practices of the Egyptians that they were known well to them, having lived in Egypt for a few centuries before their emancipation by God.

But in doing so, the people of God had broken the very first commandment of the Law which God was about to give them, what we all now know as the Ten Commandments, and at the core of those laws and rules governing the people, is the love that the people of God, and hence, all of us mankind, ought to give wholeheartedly to the Lord, our God and Master of the whole Universe, to Him and Him alone. There is only one God and there is no other gods besides Him, and this is the heart of the Commandments and the guidance which He has given to all of those people. Unfortunately, they had taken His love and generosity for granted, and instead of being thankful and appreciative of the love and kindness that He has shown them, they rejected His love and betrayed Him instead for pagan and false idols.

God was angered by what He had seen and He told Moses that He would destroy all of them, sparing only Moses and that He would make Moses to be the progenitor of a great people like that of Abraham before him. But Moses begged the Lord on behalf of the people of Israel, reminding God of the love which He had for those people, no matter how sinful and wicked they had been. God certainly loved His people very much, and we can see that love being manifested to us as well. But through this moment, we are all reminded of just how serious our sins are, and how dangerous they can be as they can truly lead us down the path to destruction, and if we are not careful, we may end up being judged and condemned by those sins which we had committed in our lives.

In our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard the Lord Jesus speaking to the people of God, especially referring to the actions of those who have not yet believed in Him and in everything that He had revealed to them from God up to that point, as well as the words and teachings of St. John the Baptist before Him. For the context, St. John the Baptist was the one sent by God to prepare the way for the coming of His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, and he called on all the people to turn away from their sins and to repent their wicked ways, as the coming of the Messiah and the Kingdom of God was at hand. And everything would indeed come to fulfilment with the coming of Christ. But quite a number among those people, like many among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law refused to believe, doubted and even questioned the authority and credibility of both St. John the Baptist and the Lord Himself.

But why did they all harden their hearts and minds as such? The reason was highlighted in our Gospel passage today and also in what the Pharisees believed in, namely in the very strict and rigid interpretation of the Jewish laws and customs, the Law that God had first revealed through Moses and granted to the people as we heard in our first reading passage today. However, they often did not truly understand the true intention and purpose of why those laws and rules were put in place by God. They were meant by God to show and teach His beloved people on how they can love Him and put their hearts and minds with the right focus and attention on Him, and not be easily swayed or tempted to follow the path of the world instead.

But pride is something that is truly difficult to overcome, as it was their sense of superiority, their knowledge and thoughts that they knew it better than others around them, that they were more worthy and more knowledgeable about the Law and the prophets that led them to disobey the Lord and rebel against Him, much as how those Israelites, their ancestors, had thought that Moses had perished at the Mountain of God, and instead, they thought that by establishing a golden calf over themselves as god, they were doing the right thing. And through these things that we have discussed and heard from the Sacred Scriptures today, we are reminded to distance ourselves from this prideful thoughts and ways, and we should instead humble ourselves, recognising our flaws and sinfulness so that we will not continue to fall into sin.

Let us all therefore make good use of the opportunities which had been provided to us in this time and season of Lent so that we may truly be sincere in seeking God’s love and mercy, to be forgiven from our many sins and faults, and to be reconciled fully with our loving Father and Creator. We must not take for granted God’s love for each one of us, but we must strive to seek Him with sincere and contrite hearts, desiring forgiveness for our many sins. Let us all not harden our hearts or be prideful any longer, but instead strive to live our lives henceforth with faith and true devotion towards God, be exemplary in our way of living that we may truly be worthy of being called as Christians. May God be with us always, and may He continue to bless us in everything we do. Amen.